Trans Privacy Not Jail

We call upon Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to urgently work with trans equality organisations to address the concerns of trans people that they risk imprisonment simply for non-disclosure of their gender reassignment status to sexual partners.

While recognising the complexity of individual cases and the potential for misreporting of court proceedings by the media, we express our extreme concern that it appears Scots Law has been used to criminalise a female-to-male trans man in part for presenting to a sexual partner in accordance with his male gender identity without revealing his gender reassignment status.*

We consider it essential that trans people's right to privacy about their gender history be upheld in all areas of their lives. They must not be placed in fear of imprisonment simply for non-disclosure of their gender reassignment status to a sexual partner.

We are aware that a sexual partner may become distressed upon later revelation of a gender reassignment status, however there are many common occurrences where later revelation of aspects of a non-trans person's history or current circumstances can cause severe distress to a partner and lead them to regret entering into the sexual relationship. Some typical examples are revelations about marital status, income, religious or political beliefs, medical conditions, previous convictions and sexual history. Whether to reveal such personal information to a sexual partner may be regarded as an issue of personal morality. Non-disclosure is not usually criminalised as 'obtaining sexual intimacy by fraud' where a partner is distressed by later revelations of such types. We therefore regard it as unacceptable to criminalise trans people for simply living in accordance with their gender identity and not revealing their gender history to a sexual partner.

We are shocked and appalled that such unwarranted criminalisation of trans people may occur in Scotland. Scottish public bodies should be upholding the equality and human rights of people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, not placing them into a severe state of fear and alarm. This issue seriously undermines many people's trust in Scotland's criminal justice system.

We call upon Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to urgently work with trans equality organisations to address the concerns of trans people that they risk imprisonment simply for non-disclosure of their gender reassignment status to sexual partners.